God afton, everyone! We kick off this final National Finals Saturday with results from Sweden!
Sweden made their decision for Basel during the final of Melodifestivalen. The Final liveshow which was held in Stockholm and was hosted by Keyyo and Edvin Törnblom, featured the following line-up:
- John Lundvik – “Voice of the silent” (Winner Heat 1)
- Dolly Style – “YIHAA” (Highest ranked third placer)
- Greczula – “Believe me” (Winner Heat 3)
- Klara Hammarström – “On and on and on” (Runner-up Heat 2)
- Scarlet – “Sweet ‘n’ Psycho” (Runner-up Heat 5)
- Erik Segerstedt – “Show me what love is” (Winner Heat 2)
- Maja Ivarsson – “Kamikaze life” (Runner-up Heat 1)
- Meira Omar – “Hush hush” (Winner of the second chance revote)
- Måns Zelmerlöw – “Revolution” (Winner Heat 4)
- Saga Ludvigsson – “Hate you so much” (Winner Heat 5)
- Annika Wickihalder – “Life again” (Runner-up Heat 3)
- KAJ – “Bara bada bastu” (Runner-up Heat 4)
As is customary for Melodifestivalen, the winner was determined by a 50/50 split between International Jury and Televote.
The international jury -consisting this year of Lithuania, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Norway, Greece and Serbia- did not universally vote for a particular act, scattering its votes around. Måns Zelmerlöw and Kaj hoovered up most of the high scores however, and led the tally at 76 and 74 points respectively.
After this first vote, lines reopened, allowing the Swedes to vote for their favourite act once more. At this point it had become a two-horse race between KAJ and Måns Zelmerlöw
The results were revealed in reverse order of the jury vote:
- Maja Ivarsson – 30 + 2 = 32 points
- Saga Luvdigson- 10 + 17 = 27 points
- Erik Segerstedt – 27 + 24 = 51
- Meira Omar – 24 + 26 = 50
- Scarlet – 33 + 31 = 64
- Klara Hammarström – 43 + 34 = 77
- Annika Wickihalder – 18 + 36 = 54
- Greczula – 56 + 47 = 103
- Dolly Style – 27 + 48 = 75
- John Lundvik – 25 + 49 = 74
until finally, only KAJ and Måns were left to receive their points… KAJ’s were first annoucne to have scored 90 televote points, rounding out their total to 164 points. Måns then scored 81 points, putting his total at 157 points.
Which means that KAJ have earned the right to represent Sweden in Eurovision! Måns Zelmerlöw places second, only seven points behind the Sauna boys. Greczula, in his Melodifestivalen debut, places third, while Klara Hammarström and Dolly Style round out the top five.
The Finnish group, consisting of Kevin Holmström, Axel Åhman and Jakob Norrgård belong to the Swedish speaking minority in Finland and went viral after their performance in the fourth heat.
Their victory marks the first time since 1998 that Sweden will perform a song in the Swedish language at Eurovision (the last time we heard Swedish was in 2012, by Pernilla from Finland), and the second year in a row the winners of Melodifestivalen aren’t Swedish natives (Markus & Martinus are Norwegian).
KAJ will perform “Bara bada bastu” in the first half of the first semifinal, to be held on Tuesday 13 May in Basel. Their competition there includes Estonia (Tommy Cash), Poland (Justyna), Ukraine (Ziferblat) and Belgium (Red Sebastian).
What did #YOU think of tonight’s Melfest Final? Who were #YOU endorsing for the win? Let us know on our forum, or visit us on Facebook, X(Twitter), Instagram, Youtube, and Discord.
